7 Color Palette
Used for setting
foreground and background colors
Grouped with the Swatches, and Brushes palettes
In the default arrangement, this one will be second from the top in your column of palettes. To bring this palette to the front of its group, click on its title tab, or choose Window > Show Color.
While you can choose your foreground and background colors by clicking on the color squares at the bottom of the toolbox, the Color palette gives you many more options. If you know the color values you want, you can type them directly into the boxes on the right side of the Color palette.
You can also use the color picker by clicking on the foreground or background color boxes, or drag the eyedropper (which appears automatically) through the horizontal color spectrum bar at the bottom of the palette, to pick a color.
Or you can drag the tiny triangular sliders under each color component to experiment with different mixes. The color will update instantly in the selected foreground, or background box as you change settings.
To choose a foreground color, first be sure the foreground color’s box is selected. In the example shown below, it’s the one on top, next to the #1, colored bright red. Simply click on it in the palette. When selected, it will have a double line outline. Ditto for selecting the background color. Its color box is the one slightly below, and behind, and which is colored white in the illustration below.
Please note that this entire palettes section has been updated from a Photoshop 6 version (which was updated from a 5.5 version). Wherever the palette is essentially the same as it was in 6, I have continued to use the screen capture illustrations made using that version. So if you notice cosmetic discrepancies in the illustrations, that's why. In all instances where features were added or changed, I have made new screen captures.
The illustration on the left, below, shows the Color palette with
numbers added for ID purposes. Numbered items are:
1) the foreground and background color boxes; click on whichever one you
want to choose a color for before selecting a new color
2) the triangular out of gamut warning; this means the color chosen is
out of the CMYK printable color range. The nearest in range color is shown
in the tiny square next to it. To choose this nearest color, click on
the triangle
3) color spectrum bar from which colors may be chosen by clicking anywhere
in it with the pointer
4) the arrow to click in order to access the menu shown in the illustration
to the right
5) the text boxes where numerical values for colors chosen are shown,
and can be edited by typing in new values.
6) black and white (little tiny squares at the end of the spectrum bar).
On the right below, is the same palette’s options menu. This is found by clicking on the arrow at the top right corner of the palette
In the illustration below you see the color picker, which appears when you click on the background, or foreground squares. The white rectangle just right of center is the color which was selected at the time the color picker was activated.
The blue rectangle immediately above it is the color which has just been clicked in the large color box to the left. The small triangle to the right of that blue rectangle indicates that this color is out of gamut for the settings currently chosen in the CMYK Setup dialog box. This means that this color would not be printable. The closest printable color is shown in the tiny cube directly below the alert triangle. To choose that nearest printable CMYK color, click on the triangle.
Below the little out-of-gamut triangle is a circle that looks like a little cube. This indicates that this color is also a non-Web color. Click on the blue cube below it to choose the nearest Web safe color, which is shown there.
By dragging the small triangles next to the vertical color column at center, you can change the range of colors available in the large box at its left. Click anywhere in that box, or within the vertical color column itself, to select a color. The white circle visible in the large color square indicates where I clicked to choose the blue color currently selected. You can change your choice as many times as you like, before clicking OK to finalize your selection.
Click the Custom button to find alternate color sets including Pantone.
Check the Only Web Colors box at the bottom of the box if you want only Web-safe colors to be displayed in the big color box.
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